Speak less and what you do say might resonate more.

An accidental observation on my part. Nothing like that old selective mutism.

Wasn’t The Resident in Georgia?

Quinces. I live on quince cider as my go-to non-water drink.

Different in some places but not everywhere. I’m not saying this as a position, just an observation. My viewpoint would be far more developed than even that.

They do draw heavily upon references to their norms though.

…as opposed to self-harm?

Some people consider not wanting to be alive to be not wanting to be alive. Cut and dry. They lump all the implications together, all the dilemmas and all the complexities that arise with the life issue. This is often associated with the law-based concepts of the Good Samaritan and the “duty to protect”. They, of course, are not mind readers and can’t look into the individual’s psyche and they resort to not taking chances. Was the person of sound mind? Were they under duress? Where do they stand between circumstantial acceptance and circumstantial yearning? Things even such as those they won’t end up guessing. Some are too afraid of what such a power can turn into, via the slippery slope trope.

The conceptualization behind them isn’t treated everywhere equally. I’m not as traditionally-minded as the people around me, but I live somewhere that’s far more traditional than progressive California. Now maybe I’m not updated on the norms (and to be fair, I’m still new here), but I think I remember reading it’s viewed as an omen of a shortage of therapy here, in the same way as its more self-destructive alternatives.

That’s not legal culture shock, that’s just the same law playing out in different ways (we don’t even know what happened). What episode are you even thinking of? I only remember this happening once in a show (and it played out rather stereotypically), not sure if the same thing was in mind.

As well as elsewhere, I might as well say now.

I’m within driving distance from Bernie Sanders’ home. I could stop by and knock on his door if I wanted to. Not that I will, he’s nice but I’m sure he’s busy.

Susan Wojcicki

Since when? Has Hell frozen over?

There probably is, but many have told me it’s not the norm to pour ranch dressing on salad.

You’d think, in the two hundred or so nations that have existed, one of them would’ve done things differently at some point. Though it makes this eyebrow-raising in a whole other way. Note to self, don’t marry.

What’s wrong with that?

How? Like with the last one, recorded history goes back six thousand years if not twelve thousand years… and this explanation lasted that long, applying to every human setting, for tens of thousands of significant people? Even if there was a dimorphic cause for it, statistically you’d think at least one female founder of some group somewhere would arise, but being the history disciple I am, even then it’s like there is some kind of everpresent force that’s stuck on man-mode that maybe I wonder about because I’m not a man.

There are also some which I know could have a reasonable explanation but which would be no less suspicious. Like the threat of nuclear conflict for example. Hundreds of times people have said “someone almost launched a nuke at someone, but one random guy in the submarine made a difference by not following through” or “this nuke or that nuke was dropped from a crashed plane but miraculously held onto its last remaining safety code and didn’t work” or “this nuke that actually was dropped and blew up just so happened to do so far enough away from civilization that nobody saw it”. If it’s not our biggest stroke of luck, it’s the ultimate form of “I’m really, really going to do it”, though I wouldn’t count on that as someone whose parents and grandparents were impacted by the nuclear tests of Chirac and Mitterand.

One thing I would probably notice (which I know I would notice because I notice it now) is how awfully convenient it was for many things in history to play out as they did. How odd is it, for example, that every nuke and world-ending event that was about to be deployed was cancelled at the last moment, or how the most important historical figures always die as their own hands, or how 99.9% of all public figures, “philosophers”, inventors, important rulers, generals, diplomats, and so on were all men?

What were you and why didn’t it last?

I can do better than that.

As a commonwealther who has tried American beer when she turned 21, I can tell you the complaints are just Europeans making a big deal as Europeans do. Err, I should clarify; American beer is an acquired taste, yes, but all beer is an acquired taste. I didn’t like European beer any more.

Rule of thumb, if a European is complaining about American customs, it’s most likely their pessimism for the sake of it. They hate American beer. They hate velveeta and decry it as fake cheese even though fake cheese wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction. They hate that Americans put dressing on salad, saying “why don’t you want to taste the salad”. They hate Americanized spaghetti even though it was Italians that Americanized spaghetti. They hate New York pizza. They hate the American fast food industry. All while they seldom question why they consider haggis, snails, casu marzu “delicacies”. The only stereotypical thing I’ve never seen them hate on, ironically, is Buffalo wings.